Trafalgar Square, London, has long been associated with New Year celebrations and the Chinese New Year is no exception. Crowds numbering in excess of 30,000 flocked to the area on February 10th 2008, The Year of the Rat, for a full programme of Chinese festivities and entertainment including a Grand Parade, fireworks and of course Chinese food.
Local restaurants work overtime and street stalls abound. But William Tang, a local restaurateur, decided to take his restaurant to the street big-time. To him street-cooking means large-scale cooking on the street – he wanted to actually have his kitchen there at Trafalgar Square. He decided the best way was to hire a temporary kitchen to be able to cook efficiently, safely and in sufficient quantities for the whole day.
The big problem turned out to be the specialist five-burner Turbo Wok essential for cooking high quantities of Chinese food. Mr Tang turned to Container Kitchen Systems (CKS) because he had heard they go that little bit further when it comes to getting just what the client wants. William Kingston of CKS took Mr Tang’s call just two weeks before the event.
"Although it was short notice we were able to ring around and track down the five-burner Turbo Wok that was essential to William Tang’s catering operation," says William Kingston.
CKS manoeuvred the kitchen module into position at 8am on the Sunday morning, and it was ready to start cooking less than two hours later. The CKS medium kitchen measures 6.2m x 2.85m with space for four chefs to work alongside each other. It is fitted with the latest equipment and conforms to the latest hygiene and fire regulations. A decorated canopy serving area was erected on the street at one end of the module.
To simplify the cooking, Mr Tang chose to concentrate on a few main favourite dishes such as sweet and sour chicken, chicken with black bean sauce and a veggie curry mix as well as rice and a selection of noodles.
"Everything worked fine," said Mr Tang. "I told CKS what I needed and they did the rest. I couldn’t have cooked properly without the Turbo Wok, and William at CKS made sure I got it."
Cooking went on till about 5.15pm. CKS returned at 7.30pm to pick up the kitchen and by 9pm it was all loaded and being driven away.
CKS is one of the UK’s leading temporary kitchen specialists. The company also offers a professional kitchen installation service and operates a catering equipment maintenance division. For more information, brochures and details, contact Container Kitchen Systems direct, by phone on 0845 812 0800, email sales@cksltd.co.uk or on the web at www.cksltd.co.uk.